He said on television on Wednesday that he represents Bangladesh to investors abroad and that any attempt to malign him is to malign Bangladesh. (He measures up to French Emperor Louis XIV here who said "L'Etat, c'est Moi" (The state is me).

He called the CPD "Shameless, liars and traitors". On another occasion, he termed CPD Executive Director Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya "kulangar", whose dignified translation is "black sheep" and a more colloquial translation far more insulting (too undignified for us to write).

The irony is that it is the victims of his invectives who are now facing warrant of arrest and not BoI chief Mahmudur Rahman who in fact, as the TV recordings show, is the only one to make defamatory comments. But of course he is the patriot and can say anything against the "traitors and kulangars." These do not constitute anything defamatory because he is a patriot and as such he can say anything against anybody.

Let us take the latest comment of the BoI chief that the CPD executive director has lost the right to Bangladesh's citizenship because he, according to Rahman, termed Bangladesh a "bad commodity". This is a clear and, we suspect, wilful distortion of what Bhattacharya said while referring to Rahman's selective use of statistics as "bad commodity" implying that ultimately it does not do any good to the country as foreign investors have access to all relevant facts. In fact, a more forthcoming approach is far more effective because there are many positive elements to attract FDI.

Just for the sake of argument, even if Bhattacharya did say what Rahman claims, does that forfeit the former's right to citizenship? How dare he question anybody's right to citizenship? It is the birthright of everybody everywhere in the world and nobody but nobody has the right to question it (except the Israelis who question the right of Palestinians to citizenship in their own land).

Rahman can question anybody's views, which he could have done far more sophisticatedly. Though on false grounds he went to court, we can still live with that but not with his questioning Bhattacharya's right to citizenship. And as such, we condemn it in the strongest of terms.

The question that boggles our mind is why a difference of opinion on economic analysis should go to this extent. Why should five most eminent citizens of the country have arrest warrants against them? Is there a method in, what apparently seems like, total madness. Rahman's defamation suit is, as claimed by him, based on the alleged comment of Syed Manzur Elahi that he was a "collaborator". Fine, then what is the "crime" of the others?

Professor Rehman Sobhan and Laila Rahman Kabir hardly said anything that day. M Syeduzzaman had nothing to do with those alleged comments, which caused Rahman's umbrage. So, why arrest warrants against them? Syeduzzaman said Rahman did not know the background of CPD trustees, otherwise he could not have called them "shameless liars and traitors". How can that constitute a case for defamation?

Now let us come to Syed Manzur Elahi's comments. As repeated replay of Tuesday's CPD press conference by the electronic media yesterday showed the nation that Elahi said nothing close to what has been claimed by the BoI chairman. So, why the case? The answer is simple -- to intimidate any dissenting voice and those looking at things in an alternative way. There is one official line and that must be echoed, otherwise your patriotism will be questioned and even your citizenship will come under scrutiny.

It is our hope that all this is the act of Rahman alone and that the government has no role in it. This hope is belied by the action of the lower court which, as we know, is under direct control of the executive. It is difficult to believe that warrants against some of the most eminent citizens of the country were out within minutes of Rahman lodging the case without a 'green signal' from the highups. That directly points to collusion with, if not the government, then certain powerful sections within it. We still believe that saner sections within the government were not in the know of it all. So, we think there is still time to rein in the super patriot and saviour, and save Bangladesh from further losing its most precious international credential -- that of its democracy.

A fundamental feature of fascism is to intimidate its citizens and civic bodies. This it does by twisting, distorting or even falsifying what they say or stand for and then using the legal framework to harass them or even put them in prison. And in doing this, they use super patriotism as the overall cover.

In Bangladesh today, we are seeing clear signs of such tendencies. The ruling BNP and its leadership must choose which direction they will take.